


all that's locked within the book of secrets

by blackkat



Series: Marvel Drabbles [1]
Category: Marvel 616, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Just Another Tuesday, Magic, even when they're arguing, mostly about magic, sometimes a family is a witch a sorcerer and the witch's soul-child with an android
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 06:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19245865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat
Summary: “The ritual of Runin? Really? Don’t you think that’s a little advanced?”Strange doesn’t even bother lifting his head from where he’s checking the last set of Billy’s notes, and Billy flicks a glance from him to the looming form of his mother-in-spirit, just the faintest darts of crimson light in her hair.“It’s perfectly safe,” Strange says, and Billy would be the first to tell him that that vaguely patronizing tone is probablynota good idea.





	all that's locked within the book of secrets

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt _Young Avenger Billy Kaplan learning magic from Doctor Strange? Maybe featuring Overprotective Mom Wanda Maximoff?_

“The ritual of Runin? Really? Don’t you think that’s a little advanced?”

Strange doesn’t even bother lifting his head from where he’s checking the last set of Billy’s notes, and Billy flicks a glance from him to the looming form of his mother-in-spirit, just the faintest darts of crimson light in her hair.

“It’s perfectly safe,” Strange says, and Billy would be the first to tell him that that vaguely patronizing tone is probably _not_ a good idea. “My wards are perfectly serviceable—”

“He’s _nineteen_ ,” Wanda says, and turns a quick smile on Billy. “And besides, _we_ don’t need spells.”

The words bring a flicker of warm brightness to Billy’s chest, and he smiles back. The little part of him that has spent his entire life being different, being a freak, seems to settle just a little at that. He’s like the Scarlet Witch. They’re similar. They're _alike_. Billy remembers that day on the bench outside the mansion, the touch of Wanda’s hand before either of them knew who they were, and he wants to take the shaken, crying boy she’d comforted and say _one day. just wait. one day you're going to be just like her_.

Of course, he got at least a little of the crazy, too. That’s—probably a downside, in the Demiurge.

“ _You_ may not,” Strange says, and pointedly shoves the ancient tome in front of Billy a few inches closer to him. “But William needs structure, and these rituals provide it. I won't have him treating every problem as if it’s a nail and he’s a hammer.”

“Hey,” Billy says, because he’s gotten used to Strange’s tense moments during their practice, but Wanda is already starting to loom a little harder. Billy hadn’t actually known that was a _thing_ , though in hindsight Eli was pretty good at it. “Uh, this symbol, right here, I keep translating it as _eye_ but that doesn’t make sense in context.”

Distracted, Strange leans over his shoulder, even as Wanda does the same from the other side, each of them with a hand on Billy’s shoulders. He freezes, eyeing the two most powerful magic-users in the world, maybe even the universe, and silently prays there won't be another argument over grammar. Teddy will laugh at him if he drags himself home complaining about the Scarlet Witch and the Sorcerer Supreme getting into a catfight over ancient sentence structure.

“It looks like _eye_ to me,” Wanda says gently, and casts Billy a hint of a smile through her bright hair. “Are you sure you got the other words right?”

“ _Eye_ is the accepted translation,” Strange affirms, giving Billy a narrow, assessing look. He tugs Billy’s translation notes towards himself, then pauses, frowning. “I—what is this?”

“The…Ritual of Runin?” Billy says. Asks. It’s definitely a question, maybe even a little squeaky. If he got something so wrong that Strange said _that_ , he’s definitely going to be redrawing ritual circles all evening. And possibly until he’s Wong’s age, if Wanda decides to chime in.

There's a long pause as Wanda and Strange trade meaningful looks Billy can't interpret. Then, deliberately, Strange reaches out and points at a word. “This one, here. Translate it for me.”

Billy squints at it, wracking his brain for any alternate translations he might have seen. But there aren’t any, and he spent all last night going over his notes, even when Tommy laughed at him and called him a nerd for it. “Uh. Portal?”

“This one, please,” Wanda says before Strange even has time to open his mouth, and Billy follows the line of her finger to a word he’s absolutely _sure_ he got right.

“Flight,” he says, confused, and looks up, glancing from one to the other. “Is—did I get it wrong?”

“No,” Wanda says, at the same time as Strange answers, “Every word of it.”

There's another pause as they eye each other. A sense of foreboding skitters down Billy’s spine, and he wonders if he can teleport out before either of them notice.

Probably not.

“It’s not wrong,” Wanda says loyally. “But you seem to be reading an entirely different ritual from the one written here, Billy.”

“ _Vastly_ different,” Strange confirms, and golden light flickers as he traces a symbol in the air above the book. When it fizzles out without changing, his frown deepens. “This is supposed to be a locator spell. It certainly doesn’t involve portals or flight.”

Billy’s stomach drops somewhere around his toes. He has a feeling he isn't going to make it to that Shake Shack date he and Teddy had planned. With a new sense of understanding, he glances at the translation he just made and swallows. “What are the odds that someone changed it up on me for a practical joke and not because they want to unseal an ancient demon from the Dark Realm?”

“Slim to none,” Strange says wryly.

Wanda smiles, and it’s catlike in a way that’s less _beguiling_ and more _predator standing over a struggling mouse_. “I think we should find out,” she says, and offers Strange a hand, one brow arched in challenge.

Strange regards her for a long moment, then smiles back, just a little. There's an expression in his face that Billy hasn’t seen there in their quiet, contained lessons, but it reminds him that Strange has turned to Chaos magic more than once before. “A field trip?” he asks, amused, and takes her hand, letting her pull him to his feet. “Very well. The classroom can only provide so many lessons.”

“I always learned best from doing,” Wanda returns, not quite a retort. She’s still smiling as she catches Billy’s hand in turn and tugs him out of his chair. Her fingers skim his hair, and then with a rush of scarlet flames her civilian clothes whirl out into the costume Billy is so familiar with. “Ready, sweetheart?”

“Track the origin of the deception spell,” Strange orders them, and lifts his hands, golden magic igniting into sweeping circles and runes. “I will guide us there.”

Billy is _definitely_ going to miss his date, but—

He meets his mother’s warm eyes, catches the smile she aims at him, and laces their fingers together, blue and scarlet magic lighting in sparks. There’s adrenaline sparking, a surge of bright-sharp delight because this is it, this is _who he is_ and what he was created for. He’s the son of the Scarlet Witch, the student of Stephen Strange, and all of this magic is in his blood and in his head, never coming out.

Teddy, he thinks, will understand.


End file.
